The Congress of the People on Monday dismissed as ANC propaganda reports of a power struggle in its ranks as the new party set about selecting leaders to steer it to the 2009 elections.

Terror Lekota, likely to be confirmed as the party's national leader, said Cope members had intercepted an SMS that proved the ANC was trying to destabilise its new rival by spreading rumours of strife between him and deputy interim leader Mbhazima Shilowa.

"There is and there will not be a contest," Lekota told a media briefing.

"The ANC is generating something like this so that this organisation can fail," he said, adding that it smacked of apartheid era dirty tricks.

Cope's general secretary Charlotte Lobe the 4000-odd delegates attending the party's three-day inaugural conference in Bloemfontein would select a top leadership structure of 12 people later on Monday.

These would be a president, two deputy presidents, a general secretary and deputy, as well as a national treasurer and a team of six people heading policy, communications, organisation, international relations, security and protocol.

Cope is expected to keep Lekota and Shilowa in their positions in line with a plea from the provinces for continuity. Lobe confirmed that the conference will choose the leaders by consensus rather than elect them.

She said this was the case because the fledgling party had not yet had the time to cement provincial structures that would enable regions to vote for leaders through a process of proportional representation.

National communications chief Phillip Dexter said delegates in Bloemfontein could still put the issue to the vote on Monday afternoon if they failed to reach agreement.

"We are waiting for the delegates from the provinces to come back and tell us whether we need to vote on this," he said.

Asked whether he was ready to lead Cope to the elections and beyond, Lekota said: "We need to see this organisation to a success and everything I must do, I will do. There is really nothing I will shun."

The party on Monday formally adopted the Congress of the People as its name, a few days after the ANC failed in a court bid to stop it using the name of the historical 1955 liberation movement meeting.